Iron Man: The rising
by Phantom117
Summary: The clothes don't make the man. Well is this case, they do. Tony Stark has successfully saved the world form super villains numerous times as Iron Man. Everything was going well, until the rising. New villains are coming up faster than Tony can handle. Pepper thinks this is bad for his health. So, Iron Man gets an unexpected apprentice.
1. Chapter 1

Tony adjusts the speed of his thrusters, and lands on the ground with a knee. He stands up slowly surveying the scene before him. Buildings have been torn to pieces and the ruble of what remain burns brightly. Pedestrians run in a panic in different directions.

Turning his gaze, Tony finds the source of this destruction. A man that doesn't even resemble human because he burns with power of a reactor core, is laughing as he destroys more buildings. Pure energy erupts from his fingertips, incinerating anything in its path. This crazed mutation calls himself the living laser.

Tony has fought the laser before, and won. Actually, Iron man has defeated the living laser a few times, and yet he keeps coming back. It's almost as if he doesn't when to quit. Taking a few steps forward, Tony calls out to the energy being.

"Laser! Why is it always buildings? Can't you destroy _anything _else? Or is this the limit of your skill?" The laser turns around, and lets out a sinister chuckle.

"Let me show you the extent of my power!" Energy erupts from nowhere at his words. Tony quickly lets off a small thruster burst, sending him sideways. The energy narrowly misses his armor, and he can feel its radiating heat.

"Have you ever wondered, Iron Man, what happens when metal meets pure energy? Let's find out!" Tony activates his thrusters, and shoots into the air. Hovering, the energy blast misses again.

"C'mon, stop this and I can help return you back to normal! You don't have to be….._this_…forever!" Tony shouts at his enemy. This earns only a snarl from the laser.

"What? Go back to normal just so I can be sent to a prison cell? Now why the hell would I do that?"

"No matter how this goes laser, you're ending up in a cell either way!" Tony rebuts.

"HAHA! See? That's where you're wrong stark! I have increased my power tenfold! There is no possible way you can even touch me!" The laser lets off more energy but Tony uses his agility to avoid the deadly beam.

"Jarvis is what he's saying true?" Tony says into his helmet.

"According to my scans, he has increased his power dramatically. There is no possible way to defeat him unless you-"

"Overcharge him. If I can pore enough power into him he may overload himself." Tony says, interrupting Jarvis.

"J, how are my subsystems holding up?"

"All subroutines are functioning to normal standards."

"Good, now start diverting power to the unibeam."

"All of it Sir?"

"Keep hover mode active, but that's it."

"Sir, you do realize that if this fails-"

"Jarvis I know the risks! Just do it!"

Another brightly colored beam rushes Tony, but yet again it fails to hit its target.

"Jeez Laser, I knew you were a bad shot, but-"

Tony can feel the heat on his chest, and then it floods along his body. He can feel gravity pulling him down, and finally the force of the ground beneath him. Looking at his chest, Tony can't help but cringe. The armor plating had been melted, and the inner workings of his MK-42 armor lay open.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk Stark. You always think so highly of yourself, but this time you're wrong. Always one to make quips during battle, but guess what? That leaves you vulnerable."

The glowing figure of a man slowly starts walking toward the prone Iron Man.

"Jarvis subsystems status and unibeam charge rate." Tony speaks quickly.

"Routine subsystems are offline, and the unibeam is now at 46% power."

"Is the self-repair operable?"

"Negative, all secondary systems are now offline. Suite is now running on backup power. Arc Reactor recharge time, 10 minutes."

Slowly getting to his feet, Tony looks at the damage done to his armor again. The plating has literally been melted off, and the arc reactor is visible. The area around the missing armor has been blackened and burnt. Looking up Tony sees the Laser getting closer.

"J, I seriously doubt we have ten minutes."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"_Five minutes before Living Laser incident"_

Seth steps out of the school, and looks at his watch. The digital face says 2:45, he had just gotten out of school. Stepping onto the sidewalk, Seth starts for home. He only lives a few blocks away, so he walks. Another boy, about the same age, walks up behind him.

"Hey man, how's it going?" The boy says.

"Well, I'm doing the usual, walking home." Seth replies, a little sourly.

"Whoa, what's the matter?"

"Don't you feel like we do the same things every day?"

"Well yeah, because we do. I don't see your point."

"My point is, it's boring. Routine I mean. All we do is the same exact things every day. And I'm tired of it."

Seth stops, and turns around. His friend had stopped walking, and had fallen behind.

"Connor, what are you…" Seth stops, noticing that Connor is staring at something. He turns around, and realizes why his friend has stopped.

Just a few yards away from them a glowing man can be seen. But that isn't what worries them. The prone figure of an armored man is what gets to them. The glowing thing is moving toward the prone figure, who lays unmoving.

"Is that….."

"Iron Man." Seth finishes his friends sentence. Before he realizes what he's doing, Seth sprints forward.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Connor yells at him. Seth whips around.

"Im going to help Iron Man!"

"From here it looks like your running to your death!" Seth ignores his friend, and continues forward. The man is just about at Iron man now, that's when Seth yells.

"HEY! HUMAN TOASTER!"

His yell attracts the glowing man's attention. This is also when Seth realizes what he just did. The Laser raises his hand, and a beam of white energy flies at Seth's face.


	2. Chapter 2

Seth could feel the intense heat as the energy beam flew a few feet to the left of his face.

"Agh! Why I'm I bothering with some stupid kid, when I can finish Iron Man right here?!" The laser says, more to himself than anyone else. Seth watches in horror, as the laser walks toward the still prone armor clad man.

The laser lets out a sinister laugh, before picking Iron Man up by the throat. Steam starts to emit from the lasers hand connecting with the armor. With barley any effort, the laser throws Iron Man into the nearest building. What's left of the building collapses around Iron Man, causing a large plume of smoke to rise up.

The laser laughs again, before letting off a few more beams of energy. The energy cuts through the rubble, and finally hits their mark. The laser stops laughing.

"Good riddance Iron Man." He says, before turning around and continuing his path of destruction.

Seth bursts into a full out sprint, heading straight for what might be the grave of Iron Man. When he finally reaches the pile of rocks and dust, Seth begins to dig, throwing rock after rock off of the beaten superhero.

After a few minutes of digging, Seth hits something harder than rock. He can barely recognize the armor underneath the debris. Dust and damage have made the armor blend into the rubble. Throwing even more debris off the superhero, Seth begins to slowly drag Iron Man out of the pile.

Once he's completely free, Seth can finally get a good look at the superhero. The armor has been beat up pretty bad. There are holes all over from the lasers energy beams. The chest plate is still melted off, and a hand print is easily visible around Iron Mans neck. The armor is also sparking in various places, and the arc reactor is barley even glowing.

Seth crouches down near the armored man's head, and begins to speak.

"C'mon Iron Man, get up!" He starts shaking the armored man.

Nothing happens, and Seth begins to fear the worst. Then, Iron Man moves. He slowly pulls his hand towards his face plate. Gripping it tightly, he yanks it off. He continues to throw the broken face plate away from him. Underneath the helmet, Tony Stark doesn't look much better than Iron Man.

His entire face is a large bruise, and blood drips down his face from a cut above his eye. Seth just stares, unsure what he should do. Luckily, Tony has a plan.

"J, bring the Mark 43 here pronto."

"Affirmative, Mark 43 is now active." A small electronic voice responds to Tony. Now, Tony looks to the kid before him. He really doesn't have much choice on what he's about to do.

"What's your name kid?" Tony asks.

"Seth." Comes the one word reply.

"Okay Seth, you see that wall?" he asks, pointing to a atrial destroyed cement wall. Seth looks to the wall, and nods.

"I need you to help me over to it."

"Oaky." Seth wraps his arms around Tony's shoulder, and slowly begins to drag him over to the wall. It takes a while because the armor is pretty heavy, but Seth manages to get Tony propped up against the wall.

"So, what do we do now?" Seth asks.

"_We _don't do anything."

"What do you mean?"

"My armors shot, and there is no way I can fight the laser in my condition. He managed to ding me up pretty good."

"Wait, so if you can't fight him, then who…" Seth stops talking as the realization hits him. "NO! I cant fight a super villain!" Seth practically yells.

"Look, you're the only one who can do this, trust me."

"I can't, and besides, I don't have any weapons."

"Leave that part, to me." Tony says. "It should be here right about now…."

"Sir, Mark 43 inbound." Jarvis crackles to life.

"And there she is."

Flying an arcing pattern, a man shaped suit of armor is quickly approaching their position. Small flaps pop out slowing it down, before it lands right beside Seth. The entire back splits open, and so do the arms and legs. There's enough space for somebody to step into the armor.

The armor itself is a combo of black and yellow. The suits main color is black, and the secondary is a bright yellow. On the chest piece is a circular arc reactor. It glows, pulsating while it powers the armor.

"Go on, step inside." Tony notions to Seth.

"But-"

"Look kid, the laser isn't stopping; he's going to kill innocent people. You're now the only one who can stop him."

"But can't Jarvis just pilot the suit?"

"Jarvis isn't really the best pilot. No offense J."

"None taken Sir." Jarvis says over the speakers in Tony's armor.

_He's right; I can't just stand by while innocent people are hurt. But I can't seriously go up against a super villain, can I? Especially one that just beat Iron Man. How I'm I going to even pilot the suit, I have no idea how. But I can't just stand here. I really hope this thing is easy to use. _ Seth thinks to himself. Taking a deep breath, Seth steps forward and into the armor.

The back locks over him, encasing him I the suit. He can't really feel the suit; it's almost as if he's not wearing it. But he is, because an interface just showed up in front of his eyes. Multiple small windows flash across the screen, some scanning the environment, and some showing armor statistics.

The windows either disappear, or become transparent so Seth can see. He can see perfectly, if not better. Looking down, he can't believe that he's actually wearing Iron Man armor.

Seth slowly rotates his wrists, and flexes his arms. The armor moves along with him, letting out a soft whirring noise with each movement.

"Hello Sir, Mister Stark has advised me to allow you usage of this armor." The voice startles Seth. It seems like it's coming from nowhere, but everywhere.

"Would you like me to run the tutorial program, Sir?" Jarvis asks inside the helmet.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea Jarvis."


	3. Chapter 3

"Beginning systems diagnostic check." Jarvis says into the helmet Seth is wearing.

"Ok Jarvis, can we hurry up please?" Seth asks the artificial intelligence.

"Hover thrusters online, HUD systems online, Subsystems online, weapons systems online. All systems are online and operational." Jarvis says.

"Alright thank you Jarvis, but can we PLEASE start the tutorial?!" Seth asks, starting to get frustrated with the AI.

"Opening secure channel with Mr. Stark."

"Iron Man?" Seth asks, to nobody in particular.

"Hey kid, how ya liking the armor?"

"Its amazing Iron Man."

"Kid, call me Tony ok?"

"Ok…..Tony."

"Alright the laser is still on a rampage, so we have to cut this short. The armor system runs partially on a neural interface. You can activate most functions just by thinking about it. Just tell Jarvis what you want him to do and he'll do it, along with power management and other armor functions."

"Ok, I think I got it, but if you couldn't stop him then how can I?"

"Simple, hit him with the unibeam blast at full power. It'll literally overload him, and stop his destruction."

"Ok, so what do I do first?"

"Start off with simple hovering."

Taking a deep breath, Seth puts his feet together, and points his palms down. He thinks "hover" in his mind and the armor recognizes the neural command. A blast of red hot controlled fire erupts from each of the housings on the armors boots.

Two smaller jets come out of the armored hands, to help stabilize the now airborne armor. The armor stops ascending when it reaches about five feet off the ground. Even with the repulsors helping to stabilize him, Seth is still swaying from side to side.

"Whoa, this is harder than it looks!" Seth exclaims into the helmet.

"It just takes a little getting used to." Tony responds through the com channel.

After a few seconds of swaying like a pendulum, Seth manages to still the armor.

"Hey! I did it!"

"Nice job, now try ascending a little bit higher, but be careful. This armor was designed for-"The armor suddenly shoots straight up like a rocket.

"Speed." Tony finishes, watching the speeding into the clouds.

"Sir, flight thrusters have been activated." Jarvis informs the armors patron.

"Jarvis! Go back to hover mode! NOW!" Seth yells at the AI. Almost instantly, the armor slows down and comes to a stop. Looking down, Seth notices he's a long way from the ground.

"Whew, That was a close one Jarvis. For a second I thought we were in…You have got to be kidding me!"

Looking forward, Seth sees a passenger plane flying straight at him.

"Sir, impact with plane will not cause damage to the armor, but it will damage the plane."

"Jarvis, descend." Seth tells the AI.

"Sir, to descend I must-"

"Jarvis just do it, and do it fast!" Seth says again, as the passenger plane is getting closer. The thrusters cut out, and the armor begins to free fall. The plane passes, narrowly avoiding the suit.

"AHHHHH!" Seth yells, as the armor plummets toward the ground. The armor continues to spiral downwards, getting closer to hitting the ground below.

"Jarvis reactivate the hover thrusters!"

The thrusters burst back to life, and cause the armor to upright itself. At the same time, the armor begins to slow down, but not fast enough.

"Sir, we do not have enough speed to stop impact, brace yourself."

"You have got to be kidding me." Seth says, right before the armor hits the ground. A cloud of dust is thrown into the air. The impact left the armor in the middle of a small hole about 4 feet wide, and 3 deep. Slowly, Seth sits up and the armor servos can be heard rebooted themselves.

"Ugh. That was not fun." Seth groans, now in a sitting position.

"I told you to be careful." The com link crackles to life, and Tony's voice is filtered through.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But this isn't easy!"

"Enough fooling around, you need to stop the laser."

"But I can't! You saw how well I can pilot this thing!

"You don't need to fight him, you just need to hit him with the unibeam. Trust me, you can do this."

"Alright, I'll be back." With that, Seth activates the hover thrusters, and the armor rises into the air. Using the hand stabilizers, Seth propels the armor forward, heading for the laser.

"Jarvis, start diverting power to the unibeam, only keep the systems we need."

"Alright sir."

Seth keeps flying forward, getting closer to the laser, who is still destroying anything he can find. When he gets 30 feet from the lasers position, he drops the armor back to the ground.

"Jarvis, start diverting all power to the unibeam."

"All power, Sir?"

"Yes Jarvis. Everything."

Seth walks forward, still advancing toward the laser, who is still unaware of the new iron man approaching him.

"Hey living toaster!" Seth yells at the energy man. The laser stops burning the building he was destroying, and turns around. A look of pure disbelief comes over his barely recognizable face.

"Y-you? But…How?! I killed you…you were…this can't be real!" The laser stutters, obviously shaken by seeing a so-called dead enemy.

"Oh, I'm very real." Seth says, his voice being output through the armor speakers. The laser quickly regains his composure however.

"Ha! It doesn't matter! I killed you once! I can do it again!" The laser says, self-confidence dripping off his voice.

"Sir, unibeam is ready and fully charged." Jarvis says into the armored helmet. Seth doesn't respond, and instead speaks to the laser.

"Laser, I'm gonna give one chance to surrender, and to stop this destruction!"

"Oh Iron Man, you super heroes never learn." Before Seth can react, the laser raises his hand and a beam of white hot energy shoots toward him.

Seth can feel the heat, as the beam misses him by a few feet.

"I MISSED?! HOW!?" The laser screams.

"You just lost your chance." Seth says, before activating the unibeam. A circular beam of energy erupts from the arc reactor in the chest of the Mark-43 armor. It collides with the laser, in a show of sparks and small explosions.

"Sir, if the unibeam is kept up, the armor will lose all power."

"keep it going Jarvis!"

The beam continues feeding into the laser, who has finally realized what's going on.

"NO! You can't do this! Im the living laser!" the beam continues, but the armor can't hold out much longer. Inside the helmet, Seth's HUD is beginning to flash, and the armors power levels are critical.

"Sir, armor power at 2%, armor is shutting down."

"What? No!" The unibeam abruptly stops, and the HUD inside the helmet dissipates, leaving Seth looking through the eye holes in the helmet.

"Jarvis?" there's response from the AI.

"Hahaha! Looks like you ran out of power Iron Man! It looks like I get to kill you twice!" The laser lifts his arms, and throws more energy at Seth.

The beam flies through the air, aimed directly at the powerless armor. The pure energy never makes contact with Seth, or the armor. It instead hits a small shield, with a red white and blue star painted on it.


End file.
